


Call Me, Desperate

by zappedbysnow



Series: Coffee Never Sleeps [2]
Category: Batman (Comics), DCU (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Fluff and Humor, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-22
Updated: 2016-07-22
Packaged: 2018-07-26 01:42:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,515
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7555249
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zappedbysnow/pseuds/zappedbysnow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jason is worse than a teenage girl with a crush. Really.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Call Me, Desperate

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for annocat for reading through this and putting me out of my misery. :D

Jason hated morning traffic. He hated it so much that he made it a point to wake up early just so he could drive through the semi-empty streets before other people were awake.

That. And because he always took the long way to work so he could get his coffee at Bats, the little coffee shop at the corner of Gibson and Kyle that was open 24-hours but never got robbed because it was just a few steps away from the police station.

 _Why Bats?_  

_Because they serve great coffee and they sell suspendeds._

_Riiiight. Coffee._  He could almost hear his best friend Roy in his head.  _There’s a coffee shop right across the street, Jay. They sell suspended coffee too._

_Well, they don’t have my cute barista there!_

_Great. Now I’m arguing to my stupid best friend’s voice in my head._

But then Roy is kind of an asshole and it was no wonder his internal asshole had Roy’s voice. One of the reasons why he never took the ass to Bats was he didn’t want to subject said cute barista to his assholery no matter how nice of an asshole Roy can be.

Jason sighed and pulled on his boots.

So there it was… The Truth.

He goes out early so he could sit at Bats for half an hour and pretend to read the paper while stealing glances at the barista with a nice smile and sharp blue eyes.

He’d been doing it since after a night of drinking with Roy and his girlfriend Kori at their place. He’d conked out on the couch and woke up at six a.m. where he dutifully dragged his hung-over ass out before his friends woke up.

He’d driven by Bats along the way and stopped to get a dose of caffeine so he won’t accidentally roadkill someone for hung-over half-asleep driving or splatter his brains on the sidewalk.

That was where he saw Tim.

Yeah. He found out his name after fifteen minutes of straining to hear what the other crew called him.

 _That’s not stalkerish at all, damn it!_  He was just curious!

Tim had black hair that grazed his collar at the bottom like he’d forgotten to cut it so he just tied it back in a little ponytail at the top of his head, and he had smart sky blue eyes that seemed to smile more than his lips did.

Those smiling eyes should’ve come with a warning:

Lethal stare. Proceed with caution.

It blanked out Jason’s brain even with the hangover. He was sure he’d still be standing there like an idiot if the kid hadn’t asked what his order was. 

Hangover aside, he was okay in the first few minutes. But as he sobered up with each sip of coffee, he noticed how young Tim was.

_I know, right?_

_The first time I’m seriously attracted to a guy and it had to be jailbait._

_What can I say? The world loves messing with me._

He was a twenty-seven year old man ogling a kid like a sleezy chester. Everything about it creeped him out and made him disgusted with himself. But then, it didn’t stop him from coming back and having coffee there. He reasoned that he wasn’t actually  _doing_  anything. It was like having a crush on a movie star, so it was relatively harmless. Besides, he wasn’t even sure the kid was into guys. Not that he was interested or anything.

_Riiight…_

On his third visit, he learned that Tim wasn’t a kid he’d thought him to be. He was in his early twenties and on his last year of Mechanical Engineering at a local university. Again, he’d only overheard the conversation and he wasn’t being a stalker. Much.

It was such a relief that he’d ordered a second cup of large mochachino in celebration and spent an extra ten minutes trying to finish the damn thing while pretending he wasn’t going to be late and that he wasn’t smiling like an idiot behind his newspaper even when he was burning his tongue on scalding coffee.

So now here he was, almost four months later, heading over there again for his daily dose of Vitamin Tim to brighten up his day.

 _Christ._  He was a dork. He could beat up assholes, haggle with contractors, have debates with lawyers and have fun dates with women but he couldn’t muster up the courage to introduce himself to a guy.

He buried his face in his hands.

Geez. He needed a girlfriend or something. Then again, actively seeking out a girlfriend tended to end in disaster. So, nope. He didn’t want to subject anyone to his stupidity just because he had an idiotic need to entertain himself.

Besides, his harmless form of entertainment was good. He got great coffee every day. Got to buy someone else coffee too. And he didn’t bite anyone’s head off at the construction site anymore.

He cranked up his motorcycle, put on his helmet and started his twenty minute drive to Tim.

As soon as he parked and got off his bike, he ran a hand through his hair and stowed his helmet in the compartment under the seat. He wiped his face with a towel he keeps inside his jacket for good measure. Yeah, he wasn’t going to look like some preppy businessman but he didn’t want to look like a dirty hooligan either. Especially since he hadn’t shaved that morning.

He stuck the towel back in his pocket when he’d pushed the door into the shop and promptly did a double take at the little chalkboard near the cashier.

The little stick figure drawing was funny but it was the scribbled ’ _facts_ ’ that got him. His eyes flicked over to Tim and back to the board.

_Tim was gay? And desperately single?_

_Really?_

And was asking for his number? Well… Anyone’s number.

_Really?!!_

He was still reeling with this discovery when he reached the counter, his lips automatically smiling at the sight of his favorite barista.

“Hey. Morning.”

Tim smiled back, warm as always. “Hi. What can I get you today?”

“I’ll have–” He looked up at the chalkboard menu above Tim’s head without really seeing anything.

_Oh god. Do you want my number? My motorcycle? My life?! Take it! Take it all!_

He mentally smacked himself. There was something terribly wrong with his brain. Seriously. “–a large mochachino to go. And two suspended coffees.”

“Okay. One mochachino comin’ up.”

Tim turned to get his order and Jason took that as his cue to move to the cashier. After paying, he glanced at the chalkboard near the cashier again. It was like he suddenly developed x-ray vision and he could see what was written behind it. Taunting him.

This could be his only chance.

He didn’t even realize he was patting his pockets for a pen until the pretty blonde cashier took pity on him and put a pen and a piece of paper torn from the cash register in front of him. He quickly scribbled his name and number and palmed the paper in his hand.

His heart was pounding so hard he could hear blood rushing to his ears.  _Sheesh_ _. I’m worse than a teenage girl with a crush._

Before he could get any sense back in his brain, Tim was handing him his cup. “Here. Enjoy your coffee.”

“Will do.” His smile was more a reflex than anything. He put the paper facedown on the counter in front of Tim and went for the door as casually as he could. When he was past the coffee shop, he strode to his bike in quick strides, stuck the paper cup in the holder on the handlebars and repeatedly bonked his head on the speedometer chanting,  _Shit. Shit. Shit._  in his head.

_What have I done?! Now I can’t go back there without Tim thinking I’m a creep._

Now that he wasn’t under the influence of  _Idioticus Teenus Crushus_ , he could see it was a prank. Tim looked  _clueless_  about the whole thing.

Jason squeezed his eyes shut and took a deep breath.

_No use freaking out now._

But there went his plan of sitting in the cafe for half an hour. Now he’ll have to settle with sitting on the skeletons of the 27th floor building with his coffee. It was a good thing he always ordered them to-go.

Later, as he watched the sky turn from a light purple into a brighter yellow from his perch on the steel thrusts at the 27th floor, he stared at the paper cup in his hands and smiled absently at the logo.

Bats. Coffee Never Sleeps.

Was he really going to stop going there and never see Tim again?

_That’s a depressing thought._

_It’s just like saying I’m embarrassed that I like him._

He sighed. _I’ll give it a week._   _If he doesn’t call, I’ll go back there and just… try not to freak him out._

_Meanwhile, the coffee shop across the street will just have to do._

He groaned.  _Tim. Call meeee…_

**Author's Note:**

> Come visit me at my [tumblr](http://snowzapped.tumblr.com/). :)


End file.
